Tag Archives: vegan

I feel like we’re apologizing all the time for abandoning the blog. Again we haven’t written in a while. Not only is Tiia’s laptop broken and she can’t edit pictures, I also had to install mine completely new and some of the already edited pictures are gone. Still it won’t make much longer and we should really get at least one new one.

A lot has changed in the past months. A few weeks after we moved to Lüneburg I already found work in a lovely café. Now the summer is over but the October is starting with beautiful weather and 15°C. Perfect weather to enjoy some vegan treats!

The whole October Lüneburg is part of the event “Lüneburg is(s)t vegan” which means “Lüneburg is/eats vegan”. Tiia and I are also taking part, so today I want to post a recipe for a chocolate brownie that is also gluten-free.

These brownies are perfect for everybody who can’t eat gluten, sugar, dairy or eggs. They are completely made without any flour and to make them a bit sweet, dates are thrown into the mix. The recipe also doesn’t use any commercial butter or margarine – instead I made some from desiccated coconut.

The delicious brownie recipe is adapted from this blog. The original isn’t vegan and I actually tried half of the recipe using eggs but I didn’t really like the result. The brownies with egg weren’t really brownies but more like a fluffy chocolate cake and that wasn’t what I was looking for at that moment. With using flax eggs as a substitute the brownies turned out perfectly moist!

If you want to you can decorate the brownies with a vegan whipped cream or a berry mousse. I used some vegan whipping cream made from oats and added some blueberries.

Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease your tin or baking pan with coconut oil. I used cake rings for the brownies which made them quite big. You can also use a small springform or a square baking tin and cut the brownies a bit smaller later.

For preparing the flax eggs mix 3 tablespoons of ground flax with 9 tablespoons of water and set aside.

Start making the coconut butter by placing the coconut into a food processor and process until the coconut releases all its oils and turns into butter. Depending on your food processor this might take a while. Scrape down the sides once in a while but don’t give up! It will work out in the end. If you have a high speed blender this might not even be a problem.

Once you have coconut butter you can add the dates and blend until everything is smooth. Then add the flax eggs, chocolate, cacao powder, soda and a bit of sea salt and blend together. Incorporate the cacao nibs without grinding them. Transfer everything into the baking tin and smooth the top out with a silicone spatula. Bake for around 17 minutes. It might take a bit longer if you don’t use individual cake rings like I did! Let the brownies cool down completely before decorating.

For the blueberry whipped cream I first strained the thawed blueberries (you can also use fresh ones) through a fine sieve and whipped up my vegan oat cream with the blueberry juice. I formed little clouds between two teaspoons but you can just serve the cream in a bowl with the brownies or pipe it on top of the individual pieces. Enjoy!

My experiments to veganize recipes continue. At the moment I am trying to make vegan macarons so a substitute for egg foam is needed. Apparently you can useno-eggbut I didn’t want to buy something ready made for it.

A while ago on Pinterest I saw some vegan meringues made from flaxseed gel so I wanted to use that method to make macarons. My first attempt didn’t turn out perfectly, so I’ll give it another try later. With no more almonds in the house and more flax seed gel I decided to make coconut macaroons instead.

This recipe is really simple and good for people with food restrictions since it doesn’t include refined sugars, nuts, dairy products and is also gluten-free. If you are on a low FODMAP diet you can eat around 18 g of shredded coconut according to the app provided my Monash University. Depending on the size of your macaroons that would mean 2-3 pieces.

But first let me explain how I got whipped “egg foam” from flaxseeds: you basically don’t have to do anything else than boil flaxseeds with water, strain them and beat the cooled down flax gel into a fluffy and shiny white egg foam!

I have to admit that I had my doubts. The gel that you get from the flaxseeds doesn’t look that appetizing, but then again egg whites don’t really either, but it works! The only problem is that it is not as stable as beaten egg whites once you try to bake it (it can’t be baked higher than 100°C). On the good side, the beaten flax foam doesn’t collapse like egg foam might, so you don’t have to be super careful while incorporating other ingredients into the flax fluff. I haven’t made simple meringues yet but at least for the macaroons I can say that they didn’t taste any different than macaroons made with egg.

Flaxseed gel

55 g flaxseeds3 cups water

Mix everything in a saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat. Turn the stove down to low-medium heat and let it simmer for around 20-30 minutes. To get the gel, strain the liquid out of the seeds by sifting through a fine sieve into a bowl. It will more gel like once it has cooled down. I recommend making the gel the day before. When I made it first, the foam got way firmer the second day!

Beat the flax gel around 5 minutes using a hand mixer until it’s fluffy and firm just like beaten egg whites.

Add the syrup and the coconut using a silicone spatula to incorporate everything. You can then either pipe the macaroons onto the tray, form little balls or drop the macaroons with a spoon onto the tray. I molded them between two tablespoons. Bake them for 1h 15m until they get lightly golden. They will be still soft, so let them cool down completely.

Melt the chocolate in a hot water bath. When the macaroons are completely cold, dip them into the melted chocolate and put on a baking paper to dry. Store in the fridge until serving. Enjoy!

I have been fantasizing about making a Toffee Nut Latte for a while and have been experimenting with creating a vegan whipped cream so I wouldn’t have to buy a ready made one from the store. Unfortunately that didn’t work out as well as planned, so I gave the caramel sauce a try which turned out perfectly!

This caramel sauce is made with coconut oil instead of vegan margarine which lots of recipes seem to use. I also didn’t use any nut butter for it but added some almond milk. If you can’t eat nuts (coconut is not a nut botanically) you can switch to soy milk or a different nut-free milk.

The colour of the sauce and its dark and deep flavour is a result of the coconut sugar I used. If you don’t like the taste of coconut sugar (it’s quite different from plain sugar) you can substitute it with brown cane sugar. The caramel can be used in coffee, hot chocolates or on desserts and ice cream and it will last in the fridge for several weeks (or even longer). If you don’t eat it with a spoon directly from the jar that is!

Combine the milk with the sugar in a saucepan and heat on medium until the sugar is dissolved. Add a litte bit of vanilla and salt and whisk in the coconut oil. Let everything simmer on low heat while stirring constantly until the caramel sauce starts to thicken up. When it has reached its desired texture take it off the heat and let it cool down. It will thicken up more once it has cooled. Pour it in a jar and store in the fridge. If you manage not to use it up immediately, it might seperate after a few days, so give it a stir before serving. Enjoy!

This year I wanted to try a few more vegan recipes, especially in baking. I saw these cookies on mywifemakesand immediately wanted to try them. They turned out to be delicious and I will definitely make them again. No one would ever guess they’re vegan and they are really easy to make! The raw dough still tasted a bit coconutty but I couldn’t taste any coconut flavour in the baked cookies. I also used my homemade peanut butter which is a really quick 1-ingredient recipe, while store bought jars often include extra oils, salt or sugar.

Preheat the oven to 175°C, line a baking tray with parchment paper and roast the hazelnut for a few minutes.

To make the flax egg mix one tablespoon of ground flax seed with three tablespoons of water and set aside until it becomes gelatinous. In the meantime chop the nuts and the chocolate.

In a bowl whisk together the sugar, vanilla, coconut oil, peanut butter and flax egg. Add the flour, soda and baking powder and mix until everything is just incorporated. Then you can add the hazelnuts and the chocolate and carefully mix everything together. Drop the cookies with two spoons onto the tray or use your hands (I think hands are the easiest option) and flatten the cookies a bit. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake around 11-13 minutes. Let them cool down because they will be quite soft at first. Enjoy!

Yesterday I wanted to make some vegan chocolate chip cookies until I noticed that I didn’t have any peanut butter at home and of course that was needed for the recipe. I decided to quickly roast some peanuts and make my own.

Making your own peanut butter is the easiest thing ever, way better and cheaper than store bought one. Also no additives, salt, sugar or oil. For peanut butter you’ll only need peanuts, that’s it. Should be obvious but when you look at the back of peanut butter jars in the store you’ll often be surprised.

Ingredients

200 g peanuts (with skin or peeled)

Heat up your oven to around 175°C and gently roast the peanuts for a few minutes on a tray. Don’t let them get too dark, otherwise the peanut butter will be quite bitter. If you bought peanuts that still have the skin, you need to let them cool down a bit and take the skins off. If you bought already peeled ones you can go ahead and start processing the nuts in a food processor. Depending on the type this might take while. I don’t have a Vitamix (unfortunately), so I need to scrape down the sides every once in a while so everything will be mixed evenly. The peanuts will first turn into flour and eventually into butter when the oils are released. Take a deep breath, it will smell awesome! Continue processing until the texture suits you. Store in a jar in the fridge or eat immediately. Enjoy!

Stef

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the cookies I mentioned in the beginning: they turned out perfect and I will put up the recipe here soon.